Twin Comets (SOHO 54 and 56)
The Twin comets, SOHO 54 & 55, were observed plunging into the Sun on June 1 and 2, 1998, which was followed on June 2 by a dramatic ejection of solar gas and magnetic fields on the Sun's surface.
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Credit: SOHO - LASCO Consortium, ESA, NASA |
References:
- NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, June 11, 1998, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980611.html
- NASA movies SOHO Observations of two Sungrazing Comets, June 2, 1998 http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/2000_02_07/dbl/c2comets5.mov
- NASA SOHO picture Solar Eruption on June 2, 1998
- ESA Hot Shots from SOHO, Twin Comets (SOHO-54 & 55) http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/2000_02_07/
- CNN News article Wow! 2 Comets slam into the Sun, which Burps, June 4, 1998 http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9806/04/kamikaze.comets/
The kamikaze comets are some of the documented comets. For more information, please visit American Geophysical Union, Naval Research Laboratory, Science Programs European Space Agency (ESA), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NASA, University of Cambridge, and Sebastian's Comet Hunt.